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Archive for the ‘Arcade’ Category
Azangara is a pretty neat arcade adventure game. You play the role of a sombrero wearing hombre, on the run to gather hidden treasure from castles in the long lost land of Azangara. The dark castles are littered with an assortment of monsters, puzzles and traps that make your life harder. Find keys to doors or force them open with crowbars to reach an exit while collecting as much as booty as you can on the way. The whole point of the game is to explore enough of the castle to gather all of the collectibles to get a high score.
I had promised myself that I would write a review a day on whatever game Giveaway of the Day… well, gives away (be it good or bad). So on with it!
Ok, so what’s on today’s menu? A small 3D Breakout clone by the name of Real Ball 2, developed and published by Arcadebird. Real Ball 2 looked promising as it started out, reminding me a lot of the old, original Breakout games to DX-Ball to Ricochet.
If haven’t already had the chance to go play and/or try these two demos just yet, I highly recommend that you do so with all due haste. Till then though, here are my impressions on both:
First up: F.E.A.R.: Perseus Mandate
About a week ago, I was on the phone talking with Reggie . No, I didn’t ask him if he knew Hutch had switched over to Vodafone!
He did throw a question that ostensibly came out of nowheres-ville: “Dude, have you every played Ninja Commando?” A quick and resonant “Yes” followed, and for moderately good reasons. That sucker along with many other arcade games from the late 80s till the early 90s, were carved into my mind like stone. For every passing day, I dropped a few quarters into these soul-sucking apparatuses with their half-working joysticks. Just a few quarters, and then maybe a few more. And if I ever ran out, hey no biggie, I’d come back tomorrow with a new stack. And then the next day. And then the next day. And then the next day. I didn’t have a lot of friends back then, what can I say.
Ninja Commando was released way back in 1992 (although I mostly likely played it roughly a year afterward) and later ported to SNK’s Neo-Geo/Neo-Geo CD console. Developed by the now defunct Alpha Denshi Corp (or ADK), they were also responsible for other relatively well-known games – World Heroes, a 2D Fighter, and Twinkle Star Sprites, shoot’ em up with puzzle elements and no less than three under-aged girls hiding underneath a grand sailor motif. But this isn’t the time to blabber about that, this is about ninjas going commando!
Ahoy thar me harties!
Aye, before you start readin’ this post, I’d recommend headin’ o’er t’ har and read up a bit on the most important day (okay, it isn’t but my mind likes t’ imagine it is) o’ the entire year: International ‘Speak like a pirate’ day, shiver me timbers! (not t’ be confused with the International ‘Speak Like the Goddamn Batman’ day or the far more local ‘Walk like I’’e been kicked in the balls by M$’ day which Enoon has been celebratin’ for the past few weeks). Due t’ the utter awesomeness o’ Pirates, I was goin’ t’ ask for a guest speaker t’ come in today, but it seems the Pirate-ninja feud sort o’ intensifies at this time o’ the year meanin’ their all out busy kickin’ ninja ass. So fer now its all me! YARRR!
*coughs as he’s kicked in the nads by several TAP members*
Okay, okay, fine! Onto more serious matters then. I’ve been rather quiet recently for several reasons. I finally got an Xbox 360 and my recent time has been divided between working, studying, writing and playing GoW, WiC, SoTS, PGR3 and a few other games.
After creator Jeff Minter spilled his guts out on his blog about Space Giraffe, the game, along with Street Trace: NYC, is now available for download on the Xbox LIVE Arcade for a cool 400 MS Points.
The psychedelic funhouse that is Space Giraffe is an arcade game that shares a lot in common with Jeff’s previous work on Tempest 2000, even though it offers a lot more challenges (over 100 levels) and as Microsoft Game Studios release manager James Cope said, is an experience that will overwhelm the player.
“Space Giraffe is different again, it purposefully overwhelms you. It is a new type of game and it will scare people.
Learning to see, listen and feel the game a player is rewarded with a very beautiful and special experience that we haven’t experienced in videogames for a long time; the whole of Space Giraffe is more than the sum of its parts.”
Space Giraffe and Street Trace: NYC are available for download right now on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace for 400 and 800 MS Points and feature multiplayer over Xbox LIVE as well.
It’s no surprise that Games for Windows LIVE isn’t doing too good these ever. Plagued ever since its launch with ShadowRun and Halo 2 Vista, GFW Live has had none of the polish of its Xbox 360 counterpart, nor the tons of “goodies” that make Xbox LIVE such a pleasure, especially the Marketplace and the LIVE Arcade.
All that should change come November, when Microsoft rolls out Vega, the PC version of the LIVE Arcade, along with 10-20 titles at launch, with the promise of 2-4 new games every month. With users being funneled in from various sources including MSN Games and the official Xbox website, Microsoft is hoping that Vega and the LIVE Anywhere cross-platform service offer enough of an incentive for people to pick up more subscriptions to their services. As with the Xbox 360 versions, developers will earn 60% of the game’s price, whereas Microsoft picks up the remainder, and although Microsoft has put its foot down on expanding the 150 MB size restriction for the Xbox 360, Vega should allow developers to exceed the limit, provided they can justify it.
With Vega and Gears of War coming to the PC by the end of the year, it looks like GFW LIVE may evolve into a platform that a lot of us have been wishing and hoping for. Until then, there’s always Steam and Popcap Games!